Victim Of Gun Violence Says Loss Knows No Boundaries

BY AMY KINGSLEY --The issue of gun violence doesn’t hit much closer than this: In December 2004, Michael Litt’s father was shot to death during a robbery on the Caribbean island of St. Martin. It turned his life upside-down.

“It was of course very devastating. My father and I had a great relationship," Litt says. "Basically, my father’s murderers really got to the core of my being, that relationship, that connection that I had with my father is interwoven in to my very being. The best that I can think to describe it is if you’ve ever had the wind knocked out of you. You know, you still feel it. It does that — it knocks the wind out of your soul.”

Litt is sharing his story with the hope that it will raise support for the universal background checks that are being debated in Congress. But why is he lobbying for changes in the United States when his father was killed in another country?

“This kind of loss doesn’t know any boundaries.”

Congress will probably vote to expand background checks, although they still won’t be universal. Still, Litt thinks it’s a step in the right direction, and a change that both sides can agree on.

Support comes from

“The universal background check that’s being discussed is the middle ground, is the common ground.”